It is desirable for a motor vehicle body to withstand loads on a vehicle roof for occupant safety and protection. Moreover, it is desirable that the vehicle body be able to withstand a load, expressed as a percentage of vehicle weight, to simulate loads on the vehicle encountered during a vehicle rollover event. When vehicle frame components are loaded through the vehicle roof, vehicle body pillars, which are connected to the vehicle roof, can collapse under the weight of the vehicle. Conventional vehicle pillars include an outer panel connected with an inner panel. The vehicle pillar connects with and depends vertically downwardly from the vehicle roof, typically between two window openings.
A conventional approach for increasing the load carrying capacity of the vehicle pillar is to provide a pillar reinforcement structure between the inner panel and the outer panel. To accommodate for the vehicle weight during a rollover event, these pillar reinforcement structures can be made from very large thickness steel or many layers of smaller thickness metal sheets that are positioned between the inner panel and the outer panel. The aforementioned reinforcing structures can add significantly to the weight of the vehicle, which is undesirable. Moreover, attaching the pillar reinforcement structures to the panels that make up the vehicle pillars can be complicated when following known assembly processes used when assembling a vehicle body structure.